Would like to ask any of the experts about ionizers. Are they really effective and save 80% on chlorine. What would be the best brand available. Will the ionizer also work well on public or olympic pools

Ionizers for swimming pools are fine as long as you keep a close watch on the ion levels.

If the level of copper ions in the pool water goes too high, you end up having kids with green hair and horrible (usually permanent) stains in the pool.

If the copper ion level is too low, you get lots of healthy alga growing and you're back to square one.

If you do decide to go for an ionizer, pick a self-cleaning one. They are easier to maintain and give fewer problems, though they tend to be more expensive.

You could also consider a mineral sanitizer which introduces the same minerals as the ionizer but in a complexed form to avoid problems of staining. Here are a few options:
1) Nature2 - expensive and needs professional installation. Has the best marketing campaign so is the most common;
2) Frog - fair to poor results, depending on the pool's environment and water volume;
3) Pool Wizard - my personal favorite. Easy to use and reasonably priced;
4) liquid mineral systems such as Pristine Blue - easy to use.

The floatron, pool frog, pool wizard, etc all work by adding copper and/or silver to your water...just like a cheap algaecide. They do not and cannot sanitize the water alone and only effect algae. These devices will not do anything to remove pee, for example. The bottom line is that a properly chlorinated pool doesn't have algae, and thus doesn't need one.

You only need to shock a pool when you have CC (combined chlorine). A floatron has nothing to do with shocking.

If you do decide to get one, please take pictures for us when your blond friends hair turns green.

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I'm no expert...just a long time pool owner. The real experts are at www . troublefreepool . com